The number of active coronavirus disease 2019 cases in the National Capital Region (NCR) may reach 152,000 to 330,000 by the end of the month, the Department of Health (DOH) said Friday.

In response to questions from the media over Viber, the DOH said while this is “not cast in stone”, the figure was reached based on “a set of assumptions” made by the FASSSTER, a team that does Covid-19 projections.

The whole country remains at “high-risk” classification with a moderate risk two-week growth rate (TWGR) at 30 percent and high-risk average daily attack rate (ADAR) which increased to 17.14 cases for every 100,000 individuals, Health Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire said.

“A decrease in TWGR is seen nationally and in 6 regions which are NCR, Regions 4A, 2, and 3. Region 7 and 10 now show a negative TWGR,” she said. “It is important to note that while the TWGR decreased, it still showed positive growth meaning numbers are still increasing, albeit at a slower rate.”

In its daily Covid-19 bulletin, the DOH logged 17,964 new cases Friday, slightly lower than Thursday’s record-high 22,820 cases since the start of the pandemic last year.

To date, there are 175,470 active cases of Covid-19 or 8 percent of all known recorded infections.

The DOH continued to emphasize the strict adherence to minimum public health standards and “intensive implementation” of the government’s Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treat-Reintegrate (PDITR) as key in helping reduce the number of new Covid-19 cases.